In a recent meeting of friends, we had a discussion on religion. One of the young boys asked the following question and no one in the meeting had any good answer for him. I am hoping you can help us; The boy’s question was: What was the need that made Allah create man?

Allah has chosen not to reveal the answer to this question. Only He could have answered it. We are not in a position to answer this query. The only thing we know from the Qur’ān is that the creation of man is a manifestation of Allah’s mercy2. However, why His mercy made Him create man is something which we neither know nor have any means of knowing it.

It needs to be appreciated that knowing the answer to every question asked in the ambit of religion is not necessary at all. Answers to only those questions are required which form the basis of religion and on which our salvation in the Hereafter depends. All such questions have been clearly answered by the Almighty. On the other hand, we have no answers to questions such as: ‘Where did God come from?’, ‘What is the nature of His being?’, What was He doing before He created this universe?’, since our salvation does not hinge upon the answers to such questions.

Consequently, when a similar question was asked from the Prophet (sws), the Qur’ān answered that man has been given very scanty knowledge and he is unaware of many mysteries of this universe:

They ask about Wahī. Tell them that Wahī is from among the matters of Allah. You have been given but little knowledge. (17:85)